Tag: fiscus elastica

Since my blog is about pet safe plants, I wanted to take a moment and talk about the rubber tree, or the most popular kind as indoor plants, ficus elastica.

Ficus elastica, about 3 months old.

I always have at least one of my rubber trees in my photos, as I have over 10 of them in various parts of my house. Although not 100% pet safe, rubber trees have become one of my favorite houseplants. My cats won’t touch or eat them at all, which is why I began to take a liking to them. Plus they are somewhat easy to take care of, grow quickly and are so unique – especially the giant fleshy leaves and their pink underbelly. My biggest rubber tree is Rudy, who has had quite the growth spurt the last year. I always knew my children would be taller than me one day….

Harvey amongst the rubber forest.

I mentioned the aren’t totally pet safe – well, here is why. If you own one of these, you may have already encountered a milky liquid that comes out of the leaf it is punctured or taken off. This is partially why it’s called a rubber tree – that sap sticks to you and feels like rubber. Naturally if a cat or dog takes a nibble on the leaves, they would have quite a bit of oral discomfort, so they are labeled unsafe for pets for that reason.

At Dickman Farms in FLX, NY.

Nibbling is highly unlikely primarily because they don’t actually look like leaves. My cat has no interest in eating something tough, plasticy, and awful tasting. Fast forward, now I have 10 Rudys and my cats still don’t care.

Variegated (and tiny!) ficus elastica.

A pet safe cousin to the ficus elastica is Pepperomia, which is 100% safe for pets; they’re smaller and sometimes called “american rubber plant” or “baby rubber plant.” A toxic member of the ficus family is the ficus benjamina, which can sometimes go by “Indian rubber plant,” but really looks nothing like a rubber tree at all. This variety is much more toxic, so I avoid this type of ficus altogether.

If you are looking to add a rubber tree to your collection but have cats, check the label to make sure it is either a ficus elastica or a pepperomia, and take it home, monitor your pets for any interest, and you’ll know if you can buy 10 more in the near future.

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about leaf+paw

As an animal-lover and plant hoarder, I created leaf&paw to provide information, inspiration, and thoughts about my two favorite things. I ramble about toxic and non-toxic houseplants for pets, plant care, and document my ever-growing plant collection that I love to share.